Common
Man's Millennium? World Health
and World Health Organization
I was strolling down the busy
streets of Dalhousie Square in Calcutta, the old office area of
the city. Congested as usual, these place houses many small
offices, trading zones, government offices and financial
institutions. Choking black smoke from vehicles, fuming smoke from
cigarettes, cars honking away to glory, dust making its usual
rounds, and various wastes lying on the pavement kicked around by
pedestrians.
It was the 7th of April. The
day was auspicious but no one bothered. World health Day is nothing more
than a general knowledge questions to the millions of common men
throughout the world. A common man thinks he is healthy as long as he is
not sick. Little do we realize that from the safe delivery of a baby to
the dignity of the frail elderly, health systems have a vital and
continuing responsibility to every people throughout his lifespan.
Gro Harlem Brundtland, the
Director General of WHO said "The way health systems are designed,
managed and financed affects people's lives and livelihoods. The
difference between a well-performing health system and one that is
failing can be measured in death, disability, impoverishment,
humiliation and despair."
100 years ago, organized health systems in the modern sense barely
existed. Few people alive then would ever visit a hospital. Most were
born into large families and faced an infancy and childhood threatened
by a host of potentially fatal diseases � measles, small-pox, malaria
and poliomyelitis among them. Infant and child mortality rates were very
high, as were maternal mortality rates. Life expectancy was short �
even half a century ago it was a mere 48 years at birth. Birth itself
invariably occurred at home, rarely with a physician present.
Health is generally the prerogative of the respective government, but
with large-scale health hazards prevailing in the world, it is necessary
that organizations like World Health Organizations step in and
contribute in a major way. Often it is seen that governments fail to
spend enough on health resources, while allocating the money to other
avoidable contexts like defense weapons and security. The result is a
large number of preventable deaths and lives stunned by disability and
the ratio of such unfortunate incidents heavily tilt towards the common
man.
United Nations officials have calculated that the global population
reached six billion on 13th October 1999. On that day, in a maternity
clinic in Sarajevo, a baby boy was symbolically designated as the sixth
billionth person on the planet. He entered the world with a life
expectancy of 73 years, the current Bosnian average.
In this new millennium where we are just short of promising the people a
slice of the moon, teeming millions still suffer from epidemics,
thousands die of fatal diseases like Aids, innumerable people suffer
from various forms of cancer, and hundreds still die of one silly
mosquito bite. Family planning is not performing according to plan. Life
expectancy is increasing with a death ratio stagnant. Hence the world
population is constantly on the rise. Apart from natural diseases we
have more fatal diseases made by man ranging from chemical and nuclear
holocausts to the harmless looking tobacco smoking. Lack of proper
infrastructure, housing and sanitation often increases the chances of
infection and often trigger off an epidemic.
Within all systems there are many highly skilled, dedicated people
working at all levels to improve the health of their communities. As the
new century begins, health systems have the power and the potential to
achieve further extraordinary improvements. Unfortunately, health
systems can also misuse their power and squander their potential. Poorly
structured, badly led, inefficiently organized and inadequately funded
health systems can do more harms than good.
To improve world health condition, NGOs play an important role.
Associations like Nirmal Hriday in Calcutta, founded by Mother Teresa,
contribute a lot towards helping the poor and needy avail bare minimal
medical care. NGOs surely have better infrastructure, better financing
capabilities and are more dedicated than government organizations.
Policy-makers need to know why health systems perform in certain ways
and what they can do to improve the situation. All health systems carry
out the functions of providing or delivering personal and non-personal
health services; generating the necessary human and physical resources
to make that possible; raising and pooling the revenues used to purchase
services; and acting as the overall stewards of the resources, powers
and expectations entrusted to them.
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Common
Man's Millennium? 
I was strolling down the busy
streets of Dalhousie Square in Calcutta, the old office area of
the city. Congested as usual, these place houses many small
offices, trading zones, government offices and financial
institutions. Choking black smoke from vehicles, fuming smoke from
cigarettes, cars honking away to glory, dust making its usual
rounds, and various wastes lying on the pavement kicked around by
pedestrians. 